Telecommunications networks are important for providing global data and voice communication. Monitoring and analyzing the networks is important to ensure reliable operation, fault detection, timely mitigation of potentially malicious activities and more. Network taps are known for connecting to networks and providing a port to monitor the communication traffic on the network. Network monitors are known for providing information to other network elements.
Conventional network monitors are passive devices that collect information regarding internet protocol (IP) packets, source addresses, destination addresses, packet contents and more. The monitor then sends that information to other network elements to take action based on the information. For example, a firewall may block packets with a particular source or destination address.
One problem with convention network monitors is that they do not inspect the contents very precisely under high network traffic conditions and provide a mechanism to perform actions on packets or alert other devices through the network to perform specified functions on packets. Rather, conventional network monitors communicate with other network devices via separate communications channels. This is often a problem when other network devices are located far away from a monitor.
Consequently, there is need for an improved communications network monitor that can incorporate rules for taking local action on the network traffic, such as the active packet content analyzer described herein.